These rules of the Brighter Future Award (BFA) 2025-26 (the “Rules”) lay down the conditions for participation, the award criteria, the amount of the award and the arrangements for the payment of the award to the winners.
Art. 1 Objective and scope
Fondazione Penta ETS, with registered office in Corso Stati Uniti, Padova, Italy (“Penta”) intends to award seven prestigious international awards to recognise and celebrate champions going the extra mile to improve the health outcomes of children and pregnant people living with infectious diseases globally.
The three broader goals of the BFA 2025-26 are the following:
- To provide opportunities for scientists to connect with and learn from local communities that are at the forefront of maternal and child health;
- To support initiatives designed to improve maternal and child health, especially in old and new infectious diseases;
- To help scientists work towards solutions that have a real-world impact on public health by closing the gaps between data and human stories.
Seven winners will be selected by a jury composed of Penta ID Network members for their achievement in the field of maternal and child health (see Section 11 for the Jury composition).
For BFA 2025-26, the total amount available is EUR 35,000.00 (thirty five thousand Euros).
Art. 2 Award categories
There are two categories in the BFA 2025-26:
Penta’s Brighter Future Award: 6 (six) awards will be given, one for each of the following 6 (six) regions:
- North America
- Central and South America
- Europe, including Russia and the United Kingdom
- Africa
- Asia
- Oceania.
Penta’s Brighter Future Young Researcher Award: 1 (one) award will be given to a young researcher in the maternal and child health field.
Please see Art. 5 for our definition of a “Young Researcher”.
Art. 3 Prizes
Each of the seven winners will receive a total amount of EUR 5,000.00 (five thousand Euros) to support their ongoing work. Penta shall not be held responsible for any tax implications arising from the award.
The award will be presented during a dedicated ceremony at the Penta ID Network Meeting (“PIM”) event, which will be held in Italy in May 2026. Travel and accommodation costs for all the 7 (seven) award recipients will be covered by Penta.
Penta reserves the right not to award one or both of the two BFA 2025-26 awards (i.e. Penta Brighter Future Award and/or the Penta’s Brighter Future Young Researcher Award), if applications presented do not comply with the requirements detailed below.
Art. 4 Deadline and admissibility
Opening of the nominations: 15 September 2025 at 21:00:00 CEST.
Closing date for the nomination: 15 November 2025 at 17:00:00 CET (31 October 2025 at 17:00:00 CET before the extension).
Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
Penta reserves the right to reject any application that does not comply with the requirements provided herewith.
Art. 5 Award recipients
The BFA 2025-26 is open to individuals or organizations significantly contributing to maternal and child health, particularly infectious diseases affecting children. The BFA 2025-26 winners will include:
- Established leaders,
- Emerging researchers
- Professionals who have contributed considerably to the field of maternal and child health, specifically in infectious disease.
Young Researchers are defined as individuals undertaking or holding a Ph.D. or equivalent professional training ready to develop their research identity. More specifically, we consider a Young Researcher to be an individual who is:
- Pre-doctoral or doctoral student, or
- Researcher within seven years from the date of their first research-related appointment, minus eligible delays in research
- Resident (MDs in training within the first five years of obtaining their medical degree).
Please note that pro-rata applies in each case if there’s a career break, e.g., due to parental leave.
Group nominations are admitted. In this case, only one of the group members will officially travel to Italy in 2026 for the BFA 2025-26 award ceremony.
Art. 6 Exclusion criteria
Participants will be excluded if (they or one of them):
- The nominator is younger than 16 at the time of the nomination
- The nominee is younger than 16 at the time of the award ceremony
- Nominations contain sensitive information such as: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health-related data, data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation, trade union membership, or genetic data. Nominations containing sensitive information will be rejected.
- Video submissions contain personal data (name, image) of people who have not consented on the use of their personal data
- Essential elements are missing from the nomination (name, surname, email address, reason why the nominee is nominated for the award)
- The nominee does not accept the nomination
- The nominee does not agree to provide their video presentation and their consent to publish it on the Penta website and in any other communication channels that Penta intends to use for the BFA 2025-26 (e.g. social media).
Art. 7 How to apply
Participation in the BFA 2025-26 is by nomination only. Anyone over the age of 16 can submit a nomination to the BFA 2025-26.
Only persons nominated through the form can be selected for the award. The nominee must be 16 or older at the time of the award ceremony.
Nominations must be submitted via the nomination form available on the Penta ID website: www.penta-id.org/bfa/
The nomination is not blinded, and the nominee will be informed of the identity of the nominator and reason for their nomination.
Please refer to the exclusion criteria Art. 6.
Nominations must be in English.
Incomplete applications may be considered inadmissible if essential elements are missing.
Art. 8 Participation fee
There is no participation fee for the BFA 2025-26.
Art. 9 Documents
The mandatory information is set out in the application form.
Penta will request specific documents from the winners under each category of the BFA 2025-26, in order to proceed with the payment of the award. The deadline for the winners to submit the requested documents is the end of May 2026. Upon reception of the correct and original documents, the payment of the award will normally take place within 45 days.
Art. 10 Selection procedure
The BFA 2025-26 jury will assess each nomination against the award criteria and score them as follows (half marks are possible, decimals are not):
| Criterion | Threshold | Maximum points |
| Community collaboration: Evaluates how deeply the nominee engages with local communities. The work should reflect meaningful partnerships, shared ownership, and responsiveness to community needs. | 1 | 4 |
| Equity and impact: Measures the nominee’s commitment to fairness and inclusivity. The work must show tangible benefits for underserved populations and uphold principles of equity across gender, age, identity, and background. | 1 | 4 |
| Innovation and sustainability: Assesses the originality of the nominee’s approach to addressing infectious diseases and their ability to create lasting, adaptable solutions. The work should demonstrate potential for replication and long-term impact. | 1 | 4 |
Penta may request additional information from the nominee to manage the participation in the BFA 2025-26.
Each jury tier accesses only the videos selected by the previous tier.
The evaluation is planned to take place between November 2025 and January 2026.
The 7 (seven) winners will be informed of the outcome of their application between January and February 2026 via e-mail.
If within 30 days the winner does not communicate their acceptance or refusal of the award, they forfeit the right to claim the award and the all-expenses paid trip to attend the award ceremony. The forfeited award will be assigned to the next person on the shortlist.
The jury’s decisions on the merit of these initiatives are final and irrevocable.
The 7 (seven) winners will be invited for the award-giving ceremony at the Penta ID Network Meeting (“PIM”) event hosted in Italy, in May 2026.
Art. 11 Jury
Selection takes place across three levels:
- Voting Academy – Members of the Penta ID Network who have voluntarily agreed to take part in the voting process. Alongside the Guest Jury, they select the top 3 candidates under each Award category.
- Guest Jury – the 2023-2024 BFA Winners. Alongside the Voting Academy, they select the top 3 candidates under each Award category.
- Presiding Jury – Penta Network Engagement Committee (global leadership). They select the 7 winners.
The Penta ID Network is made of over 850 healthcare professionals, researchers and community advocates from more than 95 countries around the world.
Art. 12 Publicity
Penta reserves the right to use information about the initiatives (including photographs and illustrations) entered in the competition for promotional purposes. This includes publication on the Penta website, social media channels, newsletters, and other online and offline communication tools. Such materials may also be shared with media outlets and used to promote both the Brighter Future Award and Penta’s broader mission.
Specifically, the name, surname and place of work of the winners, along with their video presentation, will be published on the Penta website and other suitable Penta communication platforms. This dissemination will occur only in accordance with the privacy notice provided.
Art. 13 Privacy
Penta guarantees that the processing of personal data of nominators and nominees in the context of participation in the BFA 2025-26 is carried out in compliance with current legislation and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “GDPR”), as per the privacy notice provided to the data subjects pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of the GDPR.
Art. 14 Liability for damages
Penta shall not be held liable for any damage caused or sustained by any of the participants, including any damage caused to third parties as a consequence of or during the implementation of the activities related to BFA 2025-26.
Art. 15 Miscellaneous
- Participation in the BFA 2025-26 implies unconditional acceptance by nominators, nominees and winners of all rules and clauses set out in this Rules.
- Penta will not be held responsible for any technical difficulties that may arise during the nomination period that prevent recipients from participating in the BFA 2025-26.
- In the case that nominations or nominees are found to be fraudulent, the right to claim the award is lost.
- The BFA 2025-26 is excluded from the Italian Presidential Decree (DPR) 430/2001 pursuant to the exclusions set out in article 6 thereof.
- In the event that a winner misses their flight to the award ceremony, Penta will not be responsible for the cost of rebooking or purchasing alternative travel arrangements. Winners who are unable to attend in person must participate virtually.
CONTACT
Any questions related to the Rules of the BFA 2025-26 should be addressed by e-mail to the following functional mailbox: communication@pentafoundation.org
Answers will only be published periodically and within a reasonable period of time on the Penta BFA 2025-26 website. Questions submitted 7 (seven) working days prior to the closing date of the BFA will be the last questions for which answers can be provided.